CHICO -- A year ago, Conrad Hughes was confined to a wheelchair, one leg in a hip-to-toe cast and the other immobilized from the knee down.

His right femur had been cut and rotated 30 degrees and his left tibia had also been severed and turned 25 degrees. The eight-hour surgery he underwent at Shriners Hospital in Sacramento was intended to give the Chico teen an upper hand in his battle with cerebral palsy.

This Sunday he'll put his improved legs to the test on a 65-mile stretch of the Chico Velo Wildflower.

"I'm sort of excited, sort of nervous. It's such a big, long ride," said Conrad, 15. "I guess I want to push myself to my limit."

The Wildflower is known as one of the premier 100-mile rides in the country. The event has come a long way since its humble 60-rider start in 1981 and this year Chico Velo's executive director Janine Rood expects it will surpass 4,000 riders.

The annual race offers seven different routes, ranging from the 12-mile Childflower to the 125-mile Wildcat. Race organizers promise challenge, scenery and lots of tasty food to fuel the pedaling.

Conrad will tackle the 65-mile Wildflower and its steep climbs up Humboldt and Honey Run roads. If all goes well, next year he wants to finish the famed century 100-mile ride.

His mother, Aloma Hughes, has faith her son will complete the course. She'll be pedaling alongside him, as she has for three months during countless training rides on the area's steep roads.

"I'm proud of him when he's setting high goals," she said. "When I see him do something I don't expect him to be able of doing, it's such encouragement to me to know one day he will be able to do it on his own — he's not going to be dependent all the time."

Conrad was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 2 years old, but signs that his development was not quite right started when he was an infant. The incurable condition is caused by brain damage and results in impairment or loss of motor function.

Conrad has spastic triplegia cerebral palsy, which means three of his limbs are affected. He doesn't have control of his legs or right arm and the muscles are always contracting, which is what caused his bones to twist inward.

The surgery, which also required cutting his tendons and putting a metal plate in his left foot, was timed for the end of his growth cycle. It should prevent or at least prolong the chance of him becoming dependent on a wheelchair.

A Paradise Adventist Academy freshman, Conrad now walks with the help of forearm crutches. He's back to playing golf, swimming and riding an ATV, but one of the best places he can access the speed and freedom his teenage self longs to have is in the seat of his recumbent tricycle.

"I don't think of myself as much different than other people," Conrad said.

His dad, Doug Hughes, bought the performance trike at Peregrine Bicycle Works in Chico as an incentive for Conrad to work hard at his rehabilitation.

Shop owner Hugh Kern said recumbent tricycles are great therapy and exercise tools for people with limitations. He noted their success with knee surgery patients, a man with Parkinson's and a woman with a degenerative neurological disease.

After the surgery, when Conrad's legs were too weak to pedal forward, Kern reversed the chain so he could pedal backwards. And once Conrad built up strength, they changed the chain back and he's been pedaling forward since.

"He's an inspiration to see. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not," Kern said of Conrad's decision to ride the Wildflower. "He's got a lot of gumption."

The teen started training for the course in February. He rides several days a week and also works with a physical therapist and a personal trainer.

The most he's ridden so far is the 45-mile loop around the Sutter Buttes, but his mother is confident he can tackle 65.

"The difficult thing with cerebral palsy is I am not in his body to know. It can look like he's not trying hard enough but everything is a struggle for him," Aloma Hughes said. "It's hard to know how much to push him, how much to accept."

But when it comes to cycling, his effort is obvious, she said. Conrad puts his whole heart into the sport.

"The challenge is for him to want it, and once he wants it, he gets it," she said.